


Snowflakes

by Blue_Storm (Spillz)



Series: Zutara Month 2016 [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:32:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9509207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spillz/pseuds/Blue_Storm
Summary: Visiting the North Pole makes Katara miss the South more than she could have ever imagined.Zuko makes her feel at home again.





	

As happy as Katara was to be visiting the Northern Water tribe, and she was happy to have been invited, but all the snow, all the blue, it was making her unbelievably homesick.

She sat on the balcony of her guest suite and watched how differently snow fell here. It didn’t pile up of the icy streets because every few hours or so someone would come by and bend it all smooth. The buildings were white, but they were like glittering diamonds in the cold sunlight, not the domes and tents she had grown up with. Even the people, who at first Katara had been unable to distinguish from her own countrymen, walked differently, behaved differently. They didn’t wave at each other or stop for long chats with old friends because there were far too many of them for them to all know each other. The fine purples and silvers embroidered into their robes were nothing like the well worn faded blues of the parkas she remembered. 

The Northern Water tribe was so very like her home, and yet in this moment, it couldn’t have been more different.

“Katara?” A voice called from her door, Katara turned away from her balcony and into her chambers. 

“Come in.” She called back, taking a seat in the fur-covered chair by her fireplace as Zuko walked in. She was equally relieved and nervous because Zuko wasn’t just Zuko anymore. Sure, he was the Fire Lord and sure he was her friend, but he was more than that now. He was the man she loved, the man she had been slowly falling in love with for years. And he was also the man she couldn’t risk loving. She had loved Aang and broken his heart, she had thought she loved Jet and he had turned on her. She had tried to love Haru for a while, and she had ended up breaking his heart too. She couldn’t risk doing that to Zuko.

“I thought since we had a free afternoon it would be good to go over some of the points from today’s trade meeting.” He said, his arms filled with scrolls and charts “The Fire Nation do have enough fish, but I think there could be some real demand for furs when winter comes.”

“Sounds great,” Katara said, her enthusiasm was for Zuko’s benefit, he was actually enjoying part of his duties for a change, he was enjoying this visit, and what kind of ambassador would put her own feelings ahead of her job. “Some of the furs out here come in natural reds and are dyed purple, do you think they’d sell better in Fire Nation colours?”

“Katara are you okay?” Zuko asked, setting the scrolls down on her table “You look… distracted.”

“I’m fine, I just didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

“You’re not acting like tired Katara, she’s way crankier than this.”

“Well, maybe I’m too tired to be cranky.”

“See that’s her!” Zuko smiled, before kneeling next to her “But really Katara, is everything okay? You’ve been acting off all morning”

“Not really, no,” Katara said after a long pause “It’s just, being here, it makes me miss home way more than I thought it would”

“Katara…”

“I know, it’s stupid I see Sokka all the time and Dad was in the Fire Nation just last month.” She started “Even Gran-Gran has been to visit, it’s just…”

“It isn’t the same as being home” Zuko finished for her, taking her hand in his “Trust me, I get it.”

And Katara believed him, Zuko always got her. And in the soft firelight and such private quarters, she was very close to doing something stupid and losing her best friend. 

“I know what would make me feel better.” She said quickly, jumping up to break the eye contact and trying to forget the feeling of his hand on hers. She had to get out of here, had to do something less personal, and she had the perfect idea.

 

“This feels unfair,” Zuko said, compacting snow in his hands the way Katara had shown him. 

“I promise not to use bending to throw them,” Katara said, holding her hand over her heart, which was still refusing to stop beating so hard “I’ll still win though.” she added, launching her snowball in a perfect arc from her hand to Zuko’s face.

“I wasn’t ready!” Zuko complained, shaking the white powder off, before ducking a second projectile “Katara!”   
“Be ready, this is war.” She said, bending up a wall of snow to catch the snowball Zuko threw back.

“What happened to no bending?”

“No bending to throw the snowball, I can bend in self-defense”

“Oh, so we’re playing like that!” Zuko said, sending a snake of fire out of his palms that totally encircled Katara. She doused the flames in moments, but the damage was done, the once thick snow that had surrounded her had melted and refrozen as solid ice. Two snowballs hit her in quick succession. The cold shocked her and it was like she was eight again, no politics, no drama. Just playing in the snow with someone she loved.

Another snowball hit her, square in the face, and as she finally hurled one back she felt more at home than she had in years.

  
  
  



End file.
